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The folding chair is the ultimate summer accomplice—at the ready for a jaunt to the beach or a fireside chat while camping and easily movable to whichever side of the terrace is getting the most sun.

But usually, once summer ends, you’re honor-bound to fold them up and pack them away till it warms up again.

Unless, that is, you get one of the following folding chairs that have been upcycled with handsome leathers, canvas and hardwoods that will take you outdoors in high style while still being handsome enough to transition indoors for the rest of the seasons...

Sad news as word came down that modernist design pioneer Massimo Vignelli lost his battle with a long-term illness yesterday.

His minimalist aesthetic has shaped our lives—and your Tumblr feed—in more ways than you’d probably realize. He’ll likely be best remembered for turning the NYC subway map into a minimalist circuit board of neatly arranged color-coded lines for the MTA—causing an uproar with straphangers in the 1970s and creating a cult classic of graphic design at the same time. He will be missed.

Lately we’ve been noticing more and more hard goods popping up from some of the more industrious menswear labels.

A plant stand here, a few birchwood trays there, a Belgian dartboard... a set of Russian nesting dolls. Put them all together and you’re well on your way to some handsomely appointed digs courtesy of your favorite clothiers.

The ominous-looking creature you’re staring at in mild disbelief is the “Love Me Tender” chair by French-Portuguese artist and architect Didier Faustino, and yes, it really is a chair.

Don’t be fooled by the dagger-sharp points on the legs or those steel bars that seem poised to split you open in very uncomfortable ways should you decide to sit on it. Design collective Superette, which will be selling Faustino’s creation, explains it thusly: “In one go Faustino summarizes his putting of bodies under tension with architecture and design through this chair that is so dangerous that it requires tenderness and gentleness to be handled.”

The perch. An underestimated sitting position—relaxed, but alert. Clear sight lines. Nimble. And never more so than upon the Curt deck chair from Swiss designers Bernhard-Burkard, who assure us that:

Even though it looks dangerous it provides comfort seating and relaxing in every occasion.

The ends of the uprights are coated with a nonslip rubber, and the physics makes sense. (Note: the latter half of the previous sentence could not be verified.) More good news about the uprights: they are hand-built by people with mental and physical disabilities at the Altra workshop in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, using local ash and beech wood.

Easily one of the most stylish movies of 2011, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been in our sights for a while. It’s got nearly all of our favorite things—British tweeds, outlandish glasses, a few well-placed Steve McQueen references, just for starters. So we sat down with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to find out where she dug it all up. If you’ve ever wanted to dress like a 1970s intelligence man, start here.